That the world is not the embodiment of an eternal rationality can be conclusively proved by the fact that the piece of the world ...that we know--I mean our human reason--is not so very rational. And if it is not eternally and completely wise and rational, then the rest of the world will not be either; here the conclusion a minori ad majus, a parte ad totum applies, and does so with decisive force.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

I must admit that the existence of Disneyland (which I know is real) proves that we are not living in Judaea in 50 AD.... Saint Pa...ul would never go near Disneyland. Only children, tourists, and visiting Soviet high officials ever go to Disneyland. Saints do not.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

The most condensed format of the conversionist motif is the TV commercial, which has become essential to both network and religiou...s broadcasting. Embedded in its structure are sentiments from our religious and political heritage: salvation and choice. Newness of life can now be associated with a change of heart about politics, the purchase of a new car, or the selection of a beverage. A Pepsi commercial, for example, designed to fit the charismatic personality and gifts of singer Michael Jackson, became an invitation to make a decision and join in. Images and sounds of the soft-drink ad drew viewers into a growing throng of happy, dancing people following the steps of a dynamic cultural hero. Even couch potatoes might have been roused, vicariously at least, to skip lightly behind the agile Jackson as he led his ecstatic followers to the right choice. The conversionist call in this instance is to come on up to the good life through Pepsi. Nonetheless it plays upon the persuasive motifs of turning around and becoming a part of something larger.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. A yellow... dressinggown, ungirdled, was sustained gently behind him on the mild morning air. He held the bowl aloft and intoned:MIntroibo ad altare Dei.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

When I was very young and first worked in Hollywood, the films had bred in me one sole ambition: to get away from them; to live in... the great world outside movies; to meet people who created their own situations through living them; who ad-libbed their own dialogue; whose jokes were not the contrivance of some gag writer.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

You listen to artists fighting with each other, competing to the death like gladiators, in order to see who is going to get into a... show, who is going to make it, who isn't: who is going to get a full-page ad and who is going to get a half-page. Then I think, "Wouldn't it be wonderful to go off somewhere and just do your work?"LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »